SURVEY
PRODUCTION 100 SUPER INDIES
Dancing Ledge: The Responder
Vertigo Films: Britannia
and falling subs at some streamers. “There is still growth in the UK
market,” he says. “Some of the buyers may be more discerning about how to structure deals, but I don’t think that is going to reduce the level of deals.” To international buyers, the
attraction of UK production companies has been sweetened thanks to the weak pound, which, at the time of writing, is worth $1.22. Effectively, that means indies are 12% cheaper for a US buyer than they were this time last year. Manwaring also thinks the TV industry will weather a recession relatively well, and that streamer subscriptions may hold up better than expected. “If the cost of living goes up, people tend to go out less, visit restaurants less and get in the car less. You tend to stay at home. If you are at home, you are likely to watch more TV.” In this context, paying £10.99 a month for a standard Netflix subscription is actually relatively affordable compared to the cost of a family meal or filling up the car with a tankful of petrol. “We saw during Covid that the TV industry did pretty well. And I think, fortunately, it is pretty robust as we go into a potential recession and living standards are squeezed,” says Manwaring.
If the streamers do spend less, other types of content beyond expensive scripted TV could benefit.
Speaking shortly after the acquisition of Plimsoll, CEO Grant Mansfield said that unscripted will continue to be in favour. “If you are looking to deliver new, fantastic content to your platform and to control your costs, a very natural thing to do would be to order more unscripted TV.”
New players Superindie groups which might have been reliant on traditional broadcasters in the past recognise that they need to diversify their portfolio of production companies, so they are capturing a share of the growing streamer market. In ITV’s case, for example, the acquisition of Plimsoll gave it immediate access to a small, but elite pool of blue-chip natural history programme makers and high- end unscripted producers. There are other factors at work in the M&A market too. There are a growing number of consolidators, beyond the traditional buyers such as the US studios and All3Media, Banijay, Fremantle, Sky and ITV Studios. (Deal-making by the usually acquisitive All3Media seems to have slowed in 2022 as the merger between its co-owner Warner Bros. Discovery works itself out). The new US players Candle Media and The North Road Company could turn their attention to the UK market. Chernin’s The North Road Company, for example,
Autumn 2022 P21
is opening a UK office in London led by former Red Arrow chairman Jan Frouman. Paris-based production group
Asacha Media Group, Franco- German outfit Mediawan & Leonine Studios and France’s Newen are among the new European buyers who have already entered the UK with an ambition to build pan- European groups, joining the likes of StudioCanal which also has significant UK interests. In some ways, this is a continuation of a theme. France- based Banijay, for example, grew on the back of its merger with European indie Zodiak, which owned UK indies such as RDF, and later with Endemol.
Expect more to come in 2023.
A producer that retains rights by producing for the linear channels and also benefits from fast, high margin growth with the streaming platforms is quite compelling
televisual.com
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